Albert Oehlen

Albert Oehlen
Born 1954
Krefeld, Germany
Known for Painting

Albert Oehlen (born 1954, in Krefeld,[1] West Germany) is a contemporary German artist. Oehlen lives and works in Bühler[2] and Segovia.[3]

Early life and education

Born in Krefeld in 1954, Oehlen moved to Berlin in 1977, where he worked as a waiter and decorator with his friend, the artist Werner Büttner.[4] He graduated from the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, in 1978.

Work

Closely associated with the Cologne art scene, Oehlen was a member of the Lord Jim Lodge, along with Martin Kippenberger among others. His art is related to the Neue Wilde movement.[5] He has more recently been described as a 'free radical'.[6]

Influenced by other German painters such as Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, Oehlen focuses on the process of painting itself.[7] During the 1980s he began combining abstract and figurative elements of painting in his works, as part of a reaction to the prevailing Neo-Expressionist aesthetic of the time.[3] In the following years, he worked within self-imposed, often absurd, parameters. He used only gray tones for his “Grey” paintings and limited himself to red, yellow, and blue for another series of what he calls “bad” paintings that included his infamous 1986 portrait of Adolf Hitler.[8] In his paintings of the late 1990s, each piece consists of smears and lines of paint Oehlen brushed and sprayed over collaged imagery that had been transferred to canvas by the type of gigantic inkjet printers used to manufacture billboards.[9] In Oehlen's recent work, flat, figurative cut-outs-all the products of computer-aided design (CAD), and gestural strokes of oil paint trade places in the service of collage.[10] In his recent Finger Paintings, color-blocked advertisements are an extension of the canvas, providing fragmented, readymade surfaces for Oehlen’s visceral markings, made with his hands, as well as brushes, rags, and spray-cans.[11]

Music

In the 1990s, Oehlen briefly ran his own independent label, Leiterwagen, putting out experimental electronica.[8] Since the late 1990s Oehlen has played in the bands Red Krayola and Van Oehlen. References to music are frequent in his paintings and drawings.[12] His artwork is on CDs by Gastr del Sol, Arthur Russell, and Swiss band Child Abuse.[8]

Teaching

Oehlen was Professor of Painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 2000 to 2009.[4]

Personal life

Oehlen is the brother of fellow artist Markus Oehlen, and their father is also an artist.[6] He lives with his wife, Esther Freund, and their three children in a village near Bühler.[8]

Reception

Criticism

In 2013 ArtDaily described Oehlen as "one of the most influential, but also one of the most controversial of contemporary painters".[13] His paintings are also frequently compared with David Salle's.[14] However his work has not been met with universal approval. Philippe Dagen, writing in Le Monde about Oehlen's 2011 exhibition in Nîmes, concluded that he was "of only limited importance. With about 30 canvases he reveals his system with absolute, but unfortunately appalling, clarity." His paintings were devoid of "any form of expression or psychic density".[15] His 2007 painting, Loa, is now part of the UK's Tate Collection.[16]

Art market

The Galerie Max Hetzler gave Oehlen his first solo show in 1981.[8] At a 2014 Christie's auction in London, one of Oehlens self-portraits from 1984 was sold for $1.8 million, roughly three times its $670,000 high estimate.[17]

Exhibitions

Oehlen has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including I Will Always Champion Good Painting at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (2006), Grounswell at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2005), Provins – Legende at Museet for Samtidskunst[18] in Roskilde, Denmark and Spiegelbilder 1982-1985 at Max Hetzler in Berlin (2005). In 2013 a retrospective of his entire oeuvre from the 1980s to 2005 consisting of over 80 works was held at MUMOK, Vienna.[13] Oehlen's work was included in the 2013 Venice Biennale.[19]

Selected solo exhibitions

[20]

Collections

[21]

External links

References

  1. ↑ "Neue Wilde". Ketterer Kunst.
  2. ↑ Sebastian Frenzel (January 1, 2010), „Stress findet statt  ...“ Archived December 29, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Monopol Magazin.
  3. 1 2 Albert Oehlen Skarstedt Gallery, New York.
  4. 1 2 Albert Oehlen, Frühstück now (Self-Portrait) (1984) Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 1 July 2014, London.
  5. ↑ "Albert Oehlen". Ketterer Kunst.
  6. 1 2 3 Glen O'Brien (28 April 2009) "Albert Oehlen" (interview), Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  7. ↑ Albert Oehlen: I Will Always Champion Good Painting, 7 July - 3 September 2006 Archived March 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Whitechapel Gallery, London.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Sean O’Hagan (May 15, 2015), Albert Oehlen: The Change Artist W.
  9. ↑ David Pagel (May 8, 1998), Art Review Los Angeles Times.
  10. ↑ Albert Oehlen, March 3 - April 7, 2012 Gagosian Gallery, New York.
  11. ↑ Albert Oehlen: New Paintings, June 6 - July 18, 2014 Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles.
  12. ↑ Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, April 22, 2009 – January 4, 2010 Museum of Modern Art, New York.
  13. 1 2 3 "mumok presents first comprehensive overview in Austria of Albert Oehlen's work", ArtDaily.org, 16 June 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  14. ↑ Martha Schwendener (October 13, 2006), [%22RI%3A10%22%2C%22RI%3A16%22 ART IN REVIEW; Albert Oehlen New York Times.
  15. 1 2 Philippe Dagen (9 August 2011) "Albert Oehlen – review", The Guardian (originally published in Le Monde). Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  16. ↑ Loa by Albert Oehlen, BBC - Your Paintings. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  17. ↑ Carol Vogel (July 1, 2014), Bacon, and a Bed, Sell Well at Christie’s London Auction New York Times.
  18. ↑ "Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark".
  19. ↑ Albert Oehlen: "Home & Garden" Annex, June 17 - September 4, 2015 Gagosian Gallery, New York.
  20. ↑ "Exhibitions List". Thomas Dane Gallery. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  21. ↑ "Collections List". Thomas Dane Gallery. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
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